Reflective Essay: We Re Moving To North Carolina

“We’re moving to North Carolina!” Exclaimed my father with particularly excited face. My heart dropped. I thought to myself “Was I really going to be ripped away from everything I’ve ever known?” I felt a cocktail of sadness and anxiety swirling in my gut as I ran out the door onto the porch in an indignant manor. It was cold outside yet it didn’t even seem to register to me because of the disbelief that I was trying to process in my mind. The moonlight struck the lake in front of the house and reflected off of the surface creating an eerie glare, and in the distance you could hear the wildlife creating a symphony of sound.

I sat on the front porch stairs trying to process what I was just told for what seemed to be at least an hour, but now I’m fairly certain it was far less. Right on the verge of tears I felt a warm arm wrap around me; it was my

Every time I would return home the house would be more vacant and boxes began to accumulate. I thought back to how comfortable and happy I was living where I am. Everyone on the street shared a small strip of sand to access the lake front about 30 feet in front of my house. Every day during the summer I would go swimming, usually to a dock about 20 yards out from the shore. On the occasion I would go canoeing all across the lake; sometimes just for leisure and other times my brother and I would go fishing. Catching turtles had become somewhat of a hobby of mine. We would go into the swampy part of the lake and patiently wait for a turtle to emerge from beneath the water so that one of us could scoop it out of the water with a net. Independence Day on the lake was an exciting event; it started off with a parade of boats and jet skis, followed by my friends and family visiting for a hefty cook out, and ended with an overwhelming amount of fireworks being shot all across the